I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart
by Kefka is in my Harem
Summary: Julia accepts Faye’s offer to join her in bounty hunting and the ending that was meant to be is shattered.
1. Thwarted Fate

**Authors Notes: - **Ok, if you've seen the show you'll recognize this scene from the end of 'Real Folk Blues 1'. This is my take on the end, mainly because I got a plot bunny* when Faye asked Julia to team up. I'll not give away what happens next but this is going to be my first non-humor fan fiction.

*** Plot bunny is a trade mark of Vix the Webmistress. Used without her consent but I'm sure she'll get a kick out of it :)**

**I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart**

"You saved me." Julia said as she finished lighting a cigarette.

"And you saved me back." Faye remarked with a smirk.

"You're a good shot." Julia stared at the water as it gently moved, and enjoyed the feel of the salty sea air through her long hair.

"It's a plus when you're chasing bounty heads." Faye said, shifting on her seat, on the side of Julia's red convertible.

Julia looked to Faye, her face registering mild surprise. "You're a bounty hunter?"

"Well..." Faye began to say but paused to collect her thoughts and blow out a cloud of smoke. "I'm taking a vacation for personal reasons."

She looked to the blond woman and smirked again. "Looks like you're going through a rough time yourself."

Julia smiled to her then looked back to the sea saying nothing.

"It might be good to work with another woman... You want to partner up?" Faye asked curiously.

"I have..." Her voice trailed off. After a moment of thoughtful silence she turned to Faye and smiled. "That sounds great."

Faye smiled. "I'm sure we'll have a great time."

Julia flicked her cigarette into the water and chuckled to herself. "It's been a while since I've had fun."

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	2. Drown Your Sorrows

**Authors Notes: - **Don't worry, these updates will get longer. Right now its just setting everything up so it's a little choppy. Soon the fun will begin.

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Vicious stalked around the corner and paused as he heard his targets voice. He was at the end of the alley. With the sureness of death he moved deeper into the dark narrow space. As he drew closer he unsheathed his sword. Just as his target appeared he lunged forward to strike. He stopped short when his intended victim sobbed.

Spike stumbled away from the wall he'd been leaning heavily against, a bottle of liquor handing from his hand. Several others littered the ground around his feet and the smell of alcohol was so strong on his breath Vicious could smell it from several feet away.

He stared in stunned shock as Spike stumbled towards him. 

"Ish that you Vishus?" He asked in a badly slurred voice.

"Spike... What the hell happened to you?" Vicious asked as he lowered his sword, unable to attack such an inebriated foe.

"She did it again!" He sobbed in reply, falling towards Vicious.

He caught him out of shear surprise and held his former friend upright. "What?"

"Julia..." Spike moaned. "Jush like last time..."

Vicious continued to keep him on his feet and thought over what he'd just said. If Julia wasn't with Spike, where was she?

Spike went limp and nearly pulled him down with him. Vicious picked him up and looked down at him. Spike snored loudly, his eyes red from crying and hair even more tussled than normal. Vicious looked around the alley, almost as if asked it for an idea of what to do. He hesitated for a moment longer then turned and walked back out onto the street, carrying the limp figure of his former comrade.

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	3. Detached Visitor

**Authors Notes: - **Yes! Yet another short chapter!... I hope things pick up soon, but I don't know... It's up to the characters and right now they apparently want to jump around like a bunch of scared mice on crack.

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****

Jet flipped through his new book on Bonsai when a sound caught his attention. It was coming from the main area. He assumed Spike was back but was surprised. He though that he was going to go see his old flame. Jet got up and stepped out of his room looking down the hall. He caught a glimpse of two figures and froze in surprise. Did Spike bring her back to the Bebop?

He carefully stepped into the hall and walked towards the sitting area. When he arrived he stopped short. Standing over a very unconscious Spike was a person Jet had never expected to meet, let alone find standing in the middle of his ship. Vicious turned and regarded Jet with a cold deadpan expression.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jet blurted out in shock.

"I found Spike drunk and barely conscious in an alley. He passed out so I brought him back home." Vicious explained with no emotion.

"And here I was under the impression you two wanted to kill each other. Heck if I remember correctly you nearly succeeded last time." Jet said walking around the indifferent man to check on Spike.

"I do want to kill him, but I'm not going to strike while he's unable to think properly let alone fight." He said folding his arms over his chest, resting his hand on the hilt of his kitana.

"Then you'll have to wait a while." Jet said leaning over his snoring friend. "As long as I've known him he's never thought right."

Vicious raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"What are you planning on doing? Waiting around for him to recover from his hang-over?" Jet asked, glancing up at Vicious.

He hesitated then glanced around the ship. "I'm not fully sure..."

Jet leaned against the couch and watched him with a frown. "I know there isn't anything I can do to stop you two. It's as if fate has decided everything already." He shrugged. "So I guess it would be pointless to kick out off my ship, just wait to fight."

"Very well." Vicious said with the utmost seriousness.

He raised an eyebrow at the too serious man and walked back into his room shaking his head. "Crazy kids."

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	4. Food

**Authors Notes: -** When I feel more like it I'll write more about Faye and Julia. But right now the others really wanted to be center stage for some reason. Blame them :) BTW The little:*'s explain the stuff I made up myself. Mostly weapons and crap. The show never went into detail so I felt the need to do so. BTW I have no idea if 'wulong' is spelled right (you know, the name of their money).

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1*****:  Vicars are fully automatic rifles often found on police cruisers. They were named Vicar because of their peace keeping uses. A vicar is a type of priest in the Catholic Church.

2*****: TELM stands for terrestrial-extraterrestrial-long range-missiles. Not commonly found in the possession of civilians, few bounty hunters bother to use them due to their high cost. They are more useful purely as a threat.

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The sound of a roaring engine pulled Julia from sleep. She sat up startled and looked around the empty motel room. Faye's bed was empty, but the sheets were still rumpled from her sleeping in them. For a moment she worried about who could be outside. Could it be Spike? Or had Vicious finally found her? She shook her head and went to the window to investigate.

Hovering in the middle of the parking lot was the last thing she expected to see. It was a pink Crown Vic cruiser. The strange vessel had four engines, two 30mm Vicars***, and four small TELMs***** hanging on the wings. Leaning out of the cockpit with a broad smile was Faye. She waved eagerly to Julia and motioned her out.**

Julia pulled on a shirt and stepped outside, watching Faye land the strange ship. Once the engine died down she jumped out and ran to Julia's side.

"Isn't it great?"

"It's... very pink. Where did you get it?" She asked eyeing the strange vehicle.

"I found it for sale at a garage." Faye glanced over at the ship then looked back to Julia. "If you're going to be a bounty hunter you need a ship."

"How did you afford it?" She said shaking her head in awe.

Faye shrugged. "It only took me a few hours to get enough money to make a down payment."

"Yes, but doing what?"

"A little bit of poker." Faye explained with a smirk.

"I've never flown a ship before Faye." Julia said looking back towards the ship.

"I'll teach you." Faye said walking towards it. "Get in, it's real easy."

"If you insist." Julia glanced back towards their room. "Just let me get dressed first."

Faye nodded and lit up a cigarette while she waited. Julia came back out a few moments later, wearing a black leather cat suit and coat. Faye raised an eyebrow and offered her, her cigarette. Julia took it and smirked.

"What?"

"Going man hunting or something?" Faye asked with a quick laugh.

"You never know when you'll run into someone." Julia replied with a laugh of her own.

**_Elsewhere:_**

Spike sat up slowly rubbing his head with a moan. He felt like someone had been jumping on his head the whole night. Slowly he got off the couch and nearly fell over. He caught himself on the edge of the table and stood upright. Yawning he walked over to the fridge and opened it up retrieving a can of beer. Walking back to his couch and past Vicious he sat down, opened it up and took a long swig.

He sighed in relief then blinked a few times lowering the beer. Feeling as if something was out of place he looked around the living area. Table, TV, couch, Vicious... His eyes landed on the gray haired man who was staring at him with irritated patience.

"I have to still be drunk." He commented aloud.

Vicious raised an eyebrow and Jet came out of the kitchen.

"Breakfast!" He hollered, walking in with three plates of food. "I thought you might be hungry too."

Jet handed one of the plates to Vicious who took it without question. He handed Spike his food then sat down next to him digging into the meal of boiled eggs, fried eggs and poached eggs.

"Why is it all eggs?" Vicious asked eyeing the food warily.

"It's all we had." Jet explained with a shrug.

Spike ignored the plate of food in front of him, a first, and stared at Vicious and Jet.

"Did I miss something?"

"Huh?" Jet mumbled in between bites.

"What's he doing here?" He asked pointing towards Vicious who now ignored him and slowly ate his breakfast.

"He came in last night carrying you. You were passed out drunk." Jet replied off-handedly.

Before Spike could further investigate the presence of his former friend, present enemy a sound caught their attention.

"A visitor?" Jet said thoughtfully, listening to the sound of a roaring engine. He stood up and walked outside to investigate.

Spike and Vicious looked at each other warily and stood as one, following him outside. Hovering over their deck was a delivery ship. Jet swore emphatically.

"This better not be another package for Faye! She still owes me for the last two!"

Spike fumbled through his coat till he found his cigarette and lighter. He lit up and watched Jet handle the situation.

He motioned the ship down and walked over yelling. "We don't want it what ever it is!"

The engine died down and the pilot leaned out. "What was that sir?"

"I said we don't want what ever it is!" Jet bellowed at him.

"But it's already been paid for sir." He said holding out a clipboard. "All I need from you is a signature."

"Oh..." Jet took the electronic clipboard and signed. "Who's it from?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know, there isn't even a return address on the thing."

He walked around to the side and opened up the door pulling out a large wooden box. The man grunted in effort and dropped it out the ground. Across the side in bright red lettering read: 'Fragile!'.

"You have a nice day sir." The pilot tipped his delivery cap at Jet and climbed back aboard his ship flying away.

"What is it Jet?" Spiked yelled from his vantage point.

"I don't know, but is a special overnight delivery from Earth..." He said walking around the large box frowning. "Who would send us anything?"

"Open it." Spike suggested.

Vicious silently watched them, still holding his plate full of eggs and eating.

"Alright..." Jet muttered. He leaned over, pulled out a pocket knife and pried open the wooden crate. As soon as he got it lose the top popped off. He jumped back in surprise. "What the hell!"

Ed bounced up out of the box like an over eager jack-in-the-box, in her arms was Ein. She squealed with joy and beamed at Jet.

"Jet-person!" She announced with glee.

"Ed!?" Jet said in surprise rubbing his balding head. "What are you doing in that thing?"

Ein wiggled out of her arms and dropped to the deck. He saw Vicious and began to growl.

"Who's he?" Ed asked pointing to the gloomy man.

"I'm Vicious." He replied darkly.

"I'm Ed-person!" She said tumbling out of the box, still sitting inside was her computer.

"Where Faye?" She asked looking around.

"She left." Spike said.

"Ohhh... Gone-gone." Ed chanted sadly. She was instantly all smiles. "Ed smells food!"

She dashed into the ship, scooping up Ein who squealed in surprise.

Jet shook his head and picked up the box, walking back inside. "I never expected to see her again."

"I guess she got hungry." Spike mused.

"Isn't that the same reason you come back?" Jet remarked as he walked past.

"Can't get enough of your bell peppers and beef. You know that Jet." He smirked following him in.

Vicious brought up the rear, still amazingly silent and looking mildly confused by this point.

Inside they discovered that Ed had found both Spike and Jet's plates and was happily shoveling food into her mouth as quickly as she could. Ein licked up pieces of egg as it flew about the place. By the time she was finished egg yolk covered her face. Ein began to lick it off and she giggled madly.

"So you've come to kill me." Spike said over his shoulder to Vicious.

"I intended to yes." He replied in a dead voice.

"What stopped you?" Spike asked falling onto the couch, draping his arms over the back of it.

"You were drunk, it would have been too easy." Vicious said, standing behind the other couch, staring at him.

Ed ran past him to the fridge, searching for something to drink. Ein followed her, hoping for more table scraps.

"Did you kill her?" Spike queried, titling his head back and watching the smoke from his cigarette float towards the ceiling and disappearing before it got there.

"She ran away, to you I thought."

"She didn't come, she was supposed to but just like before she was a no show." Spike sighed out a puff of smoke and lifted his head, staring at Vicious in a tired manner.

Vicious didn't say anything and continued to watch Spike. No emotion registered on his face or in his eyes. Spike was used to it and staring into his former friend's eyes it was as if the past three years were nothing more than a dream.

"You can't eat raw eggs!" Jet yelled at Ed who was just about to eat the last few uncooked eggs.

"But Ed is hungry!" She whined holding out the carton of eggs.

Ein whined and barked as if to concur with her statement.

"Fine, I'll cook you eggs, and feed Ein there should be a can of dog food left." Jet said taking the eggs from her and warming up a pan.

"Food for Ein, Food for Ein!" Ed proclaimed merrily, plucking a can of dog food from the fridge and pulling off the top. She upended the food into Ein's bowl and watched him eat gleefully.

Vicious watched the exchange and looked back at Spike. "You travel with an unusual group."

"I don't think I could handle normal people." He retorted with a smirk, lighting another cigarette.

"Things have changed since you left." Vicious suddenly said.

"It has been three years." Spike shrugged.

Ed suddenly somersaulted over the couch and landed in Spikes lap. He grunted in surprised pain and looked at her darkly.

"What is it Ed?"

"Ed has bounty head!" She sang out, holding a piece of paper to his face.

He studied the print out, his eyes widening. "That's a lot of wulongs..."

"What's that?" Jet said poking his head into the living area.

"Ed found a bounty worth 25 million wulongs." Spike said with a smirk.

Jet looked at Vicious then back at Spike. "Aren't you in the middle of something?"

He raised an eyebrow at Vicious. Ed rolled off of Spike and hopped up next to Vicious. He froze and looked down at her threateningly.

"Are we in the middle of something?" Spike finally asked.

Vicious looked away from the little girl who was making faces at him. "No..."

Spike seemed surprised by his answer. He stood up and walked over to Jet, handing him the paper.

"Is he just going to hang around here till he feels it's the right time to kill you?" Jet whispered to Spike.

"I don't know. It's been a while since I've been around him... But he's acting strangely." Spike whispered back, leaning against the doorway.

"Maybe he's tired of his life." Jet suggested.

"Vicious is the last person I'd expect to get tired of killing people."

"People change Spike." Jet said giving him a meaningful look.

"Yeah, I know. That's what scares me."

"Why's that?" He asked, pouring the eggs onto a plate. "Foods ready ed!"

"Weeeeeeeeee!!" Ed exclaimed dashing into the kitchen and snatching the plate away from Jet.

Spike ignored her. "What would he change into?"

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	5. The Hunt is On

**Authors Notes: -** I can't help but poke fun of things :) and I will explain why Vicious is acting so OOC.

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Vicious sat at the foot of the stairs and watched the room with a frown. The girl-child Ed was sitting on the coffee table with goggles over her eyes staring intently in the direction of the screen sitting on top of a cardboard box before her. He could hear Jet in the kitchen, cleaning and grumbling about how he was the one who did all the work around the ship. The dog was sitting before him, staring at him suspiciously. It hadn't growled at him in a while and his welcome would certainly run out if he skewered the creature. The sound of footsteps behind him made him turn. When he saw it was Spike he relaxed his grip on his sword, if he wanted him dead he would have done it already.

Spike sat down beside him and stretched his long legs out before him. Ein moved slightly to avoid getting kicked, but quickly settled back down into watching Vicious.

"You've been unusually out of character Vicious." Spike remarked, pulling a half crushed cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

Vicious glanced at him and said nothing. Spike took a drag then said casually. "Hell, you haven't killed anyone yet."

Again he didn't respond, only continued to stare at the dog. It almost looked as if they were having a staring contest. Spike sighed out a puff of smoke and stood up.

"Look Vicious..." He stared to say.

"I can't remember a time when I wasn't killing." Vicious interrupted him, still no emotion entering his gruff voice.

Spike fell silent and stared down at him, not sure how to respond to such a statement coming from his old friend.

"Why are you here Spike? Are you simply running from your old life? Or is there another reason?" He finally looked away from Ein and up to Spike.

He was quiet for a few moments, carefully considering how to respond to his questions. After a moment he took a deep breath and sighed, then sat back down.

"Once I was." Spike said softly, staring at the cigarette burning slowing in his hand.

"What changed?"

"For the longest time I felt as if I was living in a dream, and that any day I would wake up. When Julia came back, I suddenly felt awake again, real and alive." Ash fell from the tip of his cigarette and spilled onto the floor.

Vicious remained silent, letting his friend go on. He stared at the pile of ash as he listened.

"I can't believe I fell for it again." Spike dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his foot; he made no effort to light a new one.

"Found him, found him!" Ed suddenly yelled from the table.

Jet walked out of the kitchen, pulling off his apron. "What's that Ed?"

Vicious lifted his eyes and watched them. Spike looked over as well, his gaze just as heavy.

"The ISSP found him, then lost him." She announced happily. "He's on Mars!"

"Great, then let's get a move on." Jet said eagerly. He paused then looked over at the gloomy pair. "So... what are you two going to do?"

Vicious stood. "I will help."

Spike looked up at him in shock. Jet nodded slowly. "Alright, hope you have a ship of your own."

The gray haired man nodded. Jet glanced to Spike. "You coming too?"

"Of course." He announced, getting up.

"Alright Ed, where is he?" Jet asked, turning away from them.

"Last seen around Valles Marineris!"

"Humm, he could be hiding out in one of the caves there." He mused.

"He will be easy enough to find." Vicious announced, walking past the much taller man.

Jet watched him leave with a frown then called out after him. "Hey wait up there!"

Vicious stopped and looked back at him. Jet tossed him a comm. device. "You'll need this."

He caught it then glanced down at it. "Very well."

Spike watched him leave with a frown then rubbed his head. "My head hurts again."

"Then maybe you shouldn't drink so much." Jet smirked.

"Thanks for the advice mom." Spike retorted with a glare.

"Mommy!" Ed squealed, falling off the table and hugging Jet around the waist.

"Get off of me Ed! We've got a bounty to catch!" He protested trying to shake her off.

Spike walked way from the two shaking his head. The normalcy of the situation was comforting but the presence of Vicious was really starting to make his head hurt. Why the hell was he there!?

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End file.
